The Eight Pages
by LadyMaito
Summary: Benny, Ethan and the rest of the gang head out to Benny's uncles's house in the woods for a bit of fun before the boys' first year of college. After watching reality TV, roasting marshmallows, and goofing off, they decide to play a trending online game called "Slender's Forest". The game itself wasn't so scary- until it came alive. Some strong language, semi-established Bethan.
1. Chapter 1

The Eight Pages

 **AN** : I love Halloween, and so I'm trying my hand at a thriller, horror fic for the occasion, and I have no idea how it's going to turn out. I'm hoping to get a little bit of a response- tell me how it is, and enjoy chapter one. Almost seven thousand words. Also, be sure to check out my new mostly-smut Jesse/ Ethan, Ethan/Benny story titled _Vampire Blood_ , coming out very very soon. Might even be the same time as this new story.

PS: You don't need to know who Slender is and you don't need to have every played the Slenderman games before. It's all in good fun...for me, at least. Can't say the same for our poor characters. -Insert evil laugh- It's showtime!

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"They always put too much salt on these things." Ethan wrinkled his nose, sucking the crystal-like grains off his fingers as he threw the cardboard bowl back into the bag on the seat next to him. "Ugh."

"I've never liked Taco John's." Erika wrinkled her nose from her spot next to him. She flipped the page of her Seventeen magazine with perfectly manicured hands, reading in the dim light from the dusk sky. "Too messy and fattening. Nothing but grease."

"If we could ever get to Benny's uncle's house." Ethan took a long sip of his soft drink, discarding the near-empty bag with something akin to relief. "We could fire up the grill or something and eat real food."

"If we could ever get there." Erika agreed, too tired for her usual snap to accent her voice. "We've been driving forever."

"Just a few hours." Ethan corrected, seeing Sarah and Benny finally emerge from the Speedy-Stop they were parked in front of. "Finally."

"How much further?" Erika asked as Benny climbed in the drivers seat, Sarah in the passengers, after they'd thrown the groceries and such in the back with the luggage. Ethan and Erika had previously occupied the front, but Erika had tired of driving, and Ethan had tired of being criticized by Erika for his choices of music. ("Come on, babe! The 70's were the best!" Benny had defended him from the backseat.)

"Only about an hour." Benny shrugged, and there was a collective groan. "Hey! It'll be worth it. My uncle's house is awesome."

"It is!" Ethan agreed, tearing into a bag of gummy-bears that Sarah had handed him. "We've been there like three times, his uncles house is the best- a little old, but awesome. The whole property is amazing. Big oak trees in the back, a wide open yard, a garden, no traffic rushing by, fresh air..."

"A outdoor pool." Benny reminded him as he pulled out of the parking lot. "A hot tub. An air hockey table in the basement. Surround sound- and Uncle Caleb was cool enough to let all five of us stay there for the week, after I promised we wouldn't read apart his house."

"The five of us?" Erika asked, lifting her head from the magazine curiously. "Who else is coming?"

"Rory." The boys said simultaneously and the blonde recoiled.

"That little dork is coming along?"

"You didn't think I would invite you and not him?" Benny asked and caught Erika's eye in the mirror, raising an eyebrow at her sneer. In truth, half the reason he'd invited her was because Sarah had wanted him to.

"He should be there about an hour after us." Ethan commented, oblivious to the mini glare-match going on between the two teens. "He's taking his mom's car."

"I can't believe she let him." Sarah said, fiddling with the radio. "Ugh. Your music wasn't totally hopeless, Ethan, but I wish we could listen to something from this century."

"Nothing modern ever comes on around here." Benny answered, hitting his right armrest with his elbow. "My dad's girlfriend used to drive this car. Look in this elbow cupboard thing, I think there's some CD's in there."

"Um, let's see." Sarah began searching in the middle armrest and pulled out about five CD's. "We've got...Maroon 5...Bruno Mars, _Elvis_." Sarah gave them a funny look. "All right then...Foo Fighters and Various Hit's Top 30."

"Foo Fighters!" Ethan called.

"Elvis!" Benny exclaimed from the drivers seat. Sarah raised an eyebrow at him and he spared a glance at her. "What? Driver picks the music. Shotgun shuts-"

"Um, not today." Sarah interrupted and shook her head, the. looked back in the compartment. "Oh, there's three more!"

"Just put something on, _not_ Elvis." Erika called. "Or turn off the oldies, my ears are hurting!"

"Wait, wait!" Sarah turned over the first CD in her hands. "Now, we've got...Rob Zombie, ZZ Top and Alice Cooper."

"ZZ Top!"

"Alice Cooper!"

"Rob Zombie scares me."

"Various Hits it is." Sarah blew air out of her lips and opened the CD case, preparing for another long hour ahead.

More like an hour and a half, they finally arrived.

It was ten o' clock in the evening, and it the sky had begun to sprinkle the ground with rain, but the house was just as Benny and Ethan remembered it. The two had been to visit Benny's uncle all of three times together in the last ten years, and Benny spare few times before when he was a kid, but it wasn't something one could easily forget. It was massive.

"This place is huge." Sarah commented when they stepped out of the car. They had all grabbed luggage and bags of rations and were heading up the brick driveway to a big porch.

"Yeah." Benny shrugged, jingling a few keys in his fingers. "He's thinking about expanding."

"Can we hurry up?" Ethan asked impatiently from the back of the group. The house was a sight to behold, but he'd taken the most bags and his arms were hurting.

"Sorry, sorry!" Benny exclaimed, shoving a key in the lock and made a disgusted sound when it didn't turn. "Dammit. Sorry E."

"Oh look, Rory's here." Ethan grumbled as headlights shone through the few trees along the road. Their nearest neighbors were about a half-mile to the left of the house, and the nearest town was about three miles to the right- pretty private as far as this area went.

"What's up, bros and broette's?" Rory exclaimed as he exited the car. With blurring speed he was up the drive and up the stairs, making Ethan flinch as he popped up next to him. "Everyone ready for a late-night cook out? I brought hotdogs and marshmallows. Couldn't find the bread though."

"Sounds just like you, RV." Benny rolled his eyes, trying two more keys before he was finally able to turn one. "Yes! We're in!"

"You need some help, E? You look like your struggling." Rory was asking meanwhile, taking a few heavy bags off Ethan's arms, adding to his own luggage.

"I wasn't struggling!" Ethan's cheeks tinged pink, but Rory only winked and bounced along inside when the five entered the dark house. "But thanks."

"Oh my god, this is beautiful!" Sarah exclaimed as they entered the home.

"It's a pretty nice house." Erika admitted, looking around."A little old but awesome was right."

"So, what do you guys want to see first?" Benny asked. "Living room, basement, bedrooms, or the back porch-which doubles as a swimming and grill area?"

"Grill, definitely." Rory answered, already shoveling potato chips into his mouth. "I'm starving."

"Bedrooms." Erika spoke up.

"Yeah, bedrooms." Sarah smiled pleasantly. "I want somewhere to put my luggage before we head out."

"Bedrooms it is, then." Ethan interjected, shoving his way to the bottom of the stairs and gesturing them to follow. He didn't look too enthusiastic about hauling his burden up the twisting flight of stairs that suddenly looked a mile long. "We'll meet you out back, Benny."

"Dude, what if there's wild animals out there?" Benny whined only half-jokingly as the girls followed his friend up the stairs.

"There's a fence. What're you afraid of, squirrels?"

Benny made a disgusted sound and shook his head. "Come on, Rory, let's check out the back."

"Hold on." Rory said, and was gone suddenly with his and Benny's luggage both, and was back in a flash. Benny could hear voiced complaints from upstairs and something that sounded suspiciously like someone falling over. "Okay, let's go."

"Woah!" Benny exclaimed upon exiting the back doors to the patio. "Upgrade!"

" _Upgrade_?" Rory asked, equally struck by the beauty of the layout.

"The last time I was here, this place was awesome, but pretty rough. Like a outline of what it is now." Benny answered, heading over to the opposite end of the porch, and on the other side of a large-ish pool where the handsomely stained boards of the porch turned into anti-skid stone. He looked into the bright blue pool, which was in the shape of either a very mutant pear or a very well-thought-out spat, and when he reached on the wooden wall next to him, lights came on.

"Awesome..." Rory gushed, when the lights switched from strobes to different colors and back to solitary white, glowing off the stones at the edges of the pool that made it look like an extremely well-kept natural watering hole.

"That's not all!" Benny exclaimed suddenly, pointing to an area just off to Rory's left. "Dude! Uncle Caleb has a slide-out flat screen!"

"Think it gets wifi?" Rory asked enthusiastically and flew up to pull the TV out of the wall, ignoring the stepladder. "We can binge-watch _Once Upon A Time_!"

"Rory, we practically _live_ in _Once Upon A Time_." Sarah grinned as she walked out of the sliding doors, followed closely by Ethan, and then Erika. The tanned beauty was dressed in modest white shorts and a simple gray bikini top to match- though to the boys' dismay, she was pulling on a white bathrobe. Surprisingly, Erika looked much the same, except that her swimwear was blood red against her alabaster skin, and she had a short swimming skirt on over a bikini bottom- minus the bathrobe.

"This is so beautiful!" Sarah awed at the pad, while Ethan pulled out a chair for her at one of the pool-side tables.

"Woah! Upgrade!" Ethan exclaimed, taking in the pool. As usual when it came to these things, Ethan was dressed in a dark gray tee and somewhat-geeky dark and flowery swimming trunks that Benny thought he just looked delicious in.

"Upgrade?" Erika asked disbelievingly, looking around as though reluctantly impressed.

"The last time I was here-"

"Okay, this is getting weird." Benny grinned, beginning to unbuckle his pants as he walked around the pool. "So who wants to tests the waters first-"

The spellmaster was promptly hit with a pool towel that wrapped around his face like a turban.

"How about get _dressed_ first?" Sarah scoffed and Benny could just feel the grins of the onlookers.

"Right." He sighed. "Rory? You bring shorts?"

"-"

"Of course not." The spellmaster began walking towards the doors, seeing along the way that Rory had had no luck in getting the flat screen to connect. "E, would you take a look at that TV? Try and get Youtube or Netflix or something?"

"Something wrong with ordinary old cable?" The seer asked as he rummaged through the bags of food. "Who wants what? Sorry ladies, no small salads-"

"Is that a firepit?" Sarah asked, coming up next to Ethan and snatching the red hot dogs from in front of him. She gave him a friendly grin as she walked away and Ethan resisted from staring at how good she looked even in a bulky robe and hurried over to the flat screen.

"So much sexual tension on these grounds." Erika sighed, getting up and starting the stainless steel grill aflame. "And even with all the bikinis and exposed skin it's _painfully_ obvious that RV is the only one _really_ interested in the females tonight."

"Erika!" Sarah chided from where she was already roasting hot dogs on a metal spit. Erika just shrugged as though 'you know it's true' and Ethan pretended not to have heard anything- although what could be seen of his face and neck was flushed red.

"It's _BENNY_!" Benny popped in quite literally out of nowhere and almost upset a startled Ethan off of his ladder. "Sorry, E."

"And _ROR_ -"

"Too late!"

"It's never too late for RV _Rory Vampire_ to save the day." With both hands the blonde vampire held up bags of hot dog and burger buns. "Who's ready to grill out?"

"I'm about ready for a nice B Positive martini." Erika said blandly from her position at the grill.

"Come on babe, don't be a party-pooper!" Rory busied himself trying to help the beautiful vampire while Benny joined Ethan at a table. The seer was flipping idly through TV channels, and on the table were two more remotes and a portable keyboard with a mouse.

"Whatcha looking for?" Benny asked, scooting himself closer to his slightly morbid-looking friend.

"Just flipping through the cable." Ethan replied, pushing the remotes a across the table. "You wanna look?"

"Come on, E, don't be like this." Benny teased, reaching across the table to stroke Ethan's jawline, but was quickly pushed away.

"Benny-"

"Aww, E." Benny comforted, though he was grinning, and pulled the table backwards and then grasped Ethan's chair to drag him over. A reluctant Ethan stopped resisting as Benny pulled him close, throwing an arm around the shorter teen.

Which was only slightly uncomfortable seeing as Benny was now bare chested and dressed only in a pair of swimming shorts.

"Benny, come on." Ethan said, though in a noticeably lighter tone. He was pushing lightly at Benny's side and the spellmaster had a feeling that his smile was forced. "We've been over this."

"This weekend was supposed to be about fun, E." Benny let go of the seer, confused to as why he was acting the way he was.

"Not this kind of fun."

Perplexed, Benny tilted his head. "Okay, E...something's bothering you...what is it? Is it _me_?"

"Only a little." Ethan smiled genuinely this time, and gave into familiarity, moving a lock of stray hair out of Benny's eyes. The gesture was slightly intimate- not something just-friends would do normally, and Benny recognized it as a peace treaty. "Benny, I can't keep doing this."

"Whatever you're thinking, E, you can trust me." Benny asserted gently, and it seemed as though they were picking up a conversation they'd had a thousand times already- even if they'd only split up just over two months ago. "Don't think so hard."

You know, you _are_ the one who broke up with me." Ethan murmured, not meeting Benny's eyes. The tone combined with the slight hesitation told Benny everything he needed- however the teenage urges and attraction, Ethan wasn't actually interested in Sarah. He was still _his_.

"I kind of thought it was a mutual decision." Benny replied, honestly but a little uncomfortable- a feeling that was fading rapidly because Ethan's fingers had remained in his hair, trailing softly through his shaggy hair. The spellmaster could never feel anything but safe and happy when Ethan looked at him like that- which was understandably confusing, given the current conversation. There was still an undertone of sadness to the pair. "Is that really how you feel, E?"

"I don't think you really _want_ me, Benny." Ethan grinned a little. "I see the way you still look at Erika- even Sarah, for that matter."

"Aw, E, you know how I am." Benny whined a little and took Ethan's hand, holding it to his chest as he gave his best sweet smile. Then he winked. "And I know how you are. You're my best friend and we've experienced everything from awkward situations to stupid geeky fights to epic monster battles together- but you're still the only one I really have eyes for. I wouldn't say that if it weren't true."

"Can we just..." Ethan struggled for words, giving up with a sigh. "Just please not do this right now? I'm so stressed out right now, you have no idea, I just need to relax a little."

"Then relax." Benny gave a kiss to Ethan's temple, knowing that his friend would appreciate his taking it slow, and stood up to stand behind the seer. Smiling a bit deviously and swearing to himself that he'd successfully romance his best friend back into being HIS by the end of the weekend, he began massaging E's tense shoulders. "I'll help you."

"Benny, you don't have to do that." Ethan was about to stand up as well, but Benny held him down gently. "You know, there's nothing good on TV, maybe I'll just get in the jacuzzi-"

"We can do that too." Benny murmured, and he'd done this before, so he knew exactly where Ethan's muscles got stiff the most and what felt best. He could already feel that E was letting go.

And he hadn't even pulled out the big guns- watered down wine, Italian food, and a would-be anniversary gift of a mini-telescope.

Across the patio, Erika and Rory were sitting around the fire, watching the exchanges between Ethan and Benny and Sarah was kicking back by the grill, sipping Coke out of a straw and reading a book she'd brought along.

"Ethan could do better." Erika commented bluntly, watching as Benny continued to skillfully knead Ethan into seer-putty by the pool. "Don't tell him I said that." She added as an afterthought.

"I'd hate to disagree with a beautiful lady." Rory said around a mouth of food. "But that statement couldn't be more wrong."

"Well, I get the whole geek connection thing." Erika dismissed. "It's kind of cute actually, but anyone could see how easily distracted goofy Merlin is. He's obviously bent, but he..." She shrugged. "Kind of swings both ways, doesn't he? He's a skirt chaser."

"And what about Ethan?" Sarah asked, as she walked up with a plate of perfectly grilled burgers and additional hot dogs. In her other hand was paper plates and cups. "He can't be all that gay."

"You're right, he's been fawning after you since freshman year."

"Okay, okay _ladies_!" Rory held up both hands. "I'd be willing to testify here that both of them are actually into chicks _and_ dudes...particularly _each other_ dudes."

"Does anyone else feel bad that we're talking about them when they're just like...over there?" Sarah pointed discreetly at the intimate scene.

"No." Rory answered breezily. "Anyway, guys, I've known both of them way longer than you have- no offense, and those two have been inseparable since kindergarten. Soul mates, if I've ever seen them." He took a huge bite of his burger. "So even I don't doubt Benny's loyalty. It's only ever been about Ethan."

Bite. Crunch. "N' ves' ver'a."

"And vice versa." Sarah translated effortlessly, a little weirder out by her own ability to recognize Rory's food-speak. She shook her head as Rory nodded with vigor.

"Well..." Erika shrugged, making a face. "This just furthers my theory that hanging out with dorks only hinders one's social radar."

"Erika, can you try not to be so unpleasant?" Sarah complained and the blonde rolled her eyes.

"You realize that you're asking me to say...pretty much nothing at all?"

"Damn straight." Benny spoke just as Sarah opened her mouth to answer and Erika looked at the spellmaster with a half impressed expression. Ethan had just set the TV on a rerun of _Ridiculousness_ and was heading over. Benny continued, "There is a strict no-negativity rule in any house of Weir, including this one, for all intents and purposes. _and-_!" He lowered his voice to a near whisper, glaring a little. "This is the weekend I win back my boyfriend. So don't muck it up."

"Fine!" Erika held up both hands. "Fine. Since apparently what I say affects everyone here so deeply, I'll try to restrain myself."

Benny nodded just as Ethan walked up, looking at them all funny.

"Did I miss something?" He asked, half-jokingly and took an open seat.

"No."

"Nothing."

"Kinda."

"Uh.."

Looking around, Ethan only raised an eyebrow, and proceeded to help himself to the arrangement of food. Making a contented noise, the seer kicked back in his chair and gave Benny a discreet peck on the cheek when the taller teen handed him a can of his favorite soda. Something that didn't at all to unnoticed by the vamps, but no one spoke up, especially at the satisfied look on the spellmaster's face. Sarah and Erika shared a look but from then on, it was only talk about normal things.

And then somehow, they all ended up in the jacuzzi at the same time- even Erika. Watching _Baggage_.

"The freaks that show their faces..." Rory shook his head, taking a drink of his blood, and Root beer mix with a lemon on the edge of the glass. "You just can't win."

Sarah sat next to him with big brown eyes and her lips parted in a blend of shock and curiosity. The others were locked on the flatscreen, watching anxiously.

"What an idiot." Erika drawled, sipping her own umbrella drink.

"Makes you wonder who your next door neighbor is." Ethan added.

"And what kind of weird fetishes they have." Benny shuddered visibly. "Dressing up as Harry Potter in bed? _Barney_?"

"What about that guy who doesn't like kissing?" Erika shook her head with an incredulous look on her face. "Why even come on the show?"

"Why even say that?" Sarah looked beyond confusion. "He could have at least have himself a fighting chance."

"So who wants to step into the Hot Spot?" Benny grinned, then looked around. "So where would you take a first date?"

"The local blood drive." Erika answered coyly. "I thought that much was obvious."

"I knew we were soul mates!" Rory enthused, leaning closer to the beautiful blonde, who scooted away none too subtly.

"A movie?" Sarah asked more than answered. "A boat ride?"

"I was thinking somewhere along the lines of Italy." Benny shrugged. "To the Colosseum. Or to Greece- to see the Parthenon."

"And how are you supposed to get there?" Sarah asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Easy." Benny smirked. "I used the floo network. Or, in other words, an ancient transporting disk the Price family used some years ago before their family lost any and all magical blood. But there _was_ a lot of ash."

"And rust." Ethan added. "There was a lot of rust too. It smelled like copper."

"I'm pretty sure the disk thing was _bronze_." Benny argued. "Though it did smell like metal, didn't it? Granted it had been cooped in that chest in the back of the museum for so long, it almost didn't work anymore."

"And you still decided to chance it?" Sarah asked, and Rory snapped his fingers suddenly and got up, flitting out of the pool and spraying everyone with hot water. There was a collective sound of disgust, and Benny was wiping chlorine out of his eyes when Sarah and Erika got up to.

"Where are you guys going?" Ethan asked curiously. "I'm pretty sure Rory went to get another plate."

"Refill." Erika shook her empty glass and sauntered away, followed by Sarah, who'd left her robe on a pool chair.

"I'm going to unpack a little before we go to sleep." Sarah answered. "Vampires don't need sleep, and this place is awesome, but it feels a little creepy out here, don't you think?"

When she was gone, and Rory and Erika had surprisingly struck up a little conversation, Ethan took his eyes away from the newest rerun of _Baggage_ to lean closer to Benny.

"You know, it _does_ seem creepy out here." Ethan muttered, and Benny distractedly put an arm around the Seer, pulling him close to his side, as he was prone to doing.

"Why's that?" Benny asked, with his eyes still on the screen. Then he shook his head and looked at Ethan when the seer hit him lightly on the chest.

"I felt it as soon as we got here." Ethan grumbled. "Didn't you? It feels like...I don't know, like something's watching us."

"Watching us?" Benny asked, trying not to sound disbelieving and backing down when his best friend glared at him. He tried to reassure him. "I've always felt safe here, E. There's nothing but trees and that nice old couple down the road for miles. Not even bobcats come up this way."

"I know." Ethan pressed. "That's what makes it so creepy...and upstairs, I had a vision."

"About what?" Benny inquired, his curiosity quirking.

"Just a hallway." Ethan shivered, though the juccuzi was hot and the night air was fair and still. "Like the hallway upstairs, except it had a window at the end with no curtain. And it felt like...I don't know. It was dark and ominous." He slid closer to Benny and leaned into him. The spellmaster, surprised by Ethan's silent question for comfort, held him tighter and rubbed his shoulder soothingly.

"It does seem like the forest's holding it's breath or something, doesn't it?" Benny asked, mostly for Ethan's benefit- he didn't want to seem like he didn't believe the seer. "Maybe it's just because we haven't been back for a long time, E."

"Maybe." He still seemed doubtful.

"You know, Halloween is coming-"

"Halloween is still _months_ away, Benny."

"Well, comparably to like...Easter." Benny stuck out his tongue. "You know what we should try? There's that game with the guy and those bathrooms-"

"A bathroom guy?" Ethan raised his eyebrows. "It sure _sounds_ impressive."

"No, it's about this guy or something who walks around in the forest with a flashlight trying to find notes."

"Oh, I think I know that one!" Ethan scrunched up his face and picked up the keypad and mouse from the edge of the jacuzzi, standing up and sitting on the edge, so as to not accidentally drop it into the chlorinated water. He began searching. "I think Jane was playing that a couple times with her friends. I kept hearing them screaming."

"Oh please." Benny rolled his eyes, clambering out of the pool to sit beside him with a splat. "It can't be that scary."

"Let's find out!" Rory popped up in the middle of them, throwing an arm around either teen and just managing to swallow down a mouth of food before he spoke again. "Nothing can stop the unbeatable team! The three amigos! The three-"

"But don't we need muskets to be the three musketeers?"

"..."

"Okay, here it is." Ethan said, rotating between the five or six game choices before settling on the most normal-looking one. "Jeez, Caleb's wifi is fast. I barely clicked on it."

"It's already done loading." Benny looked impressed. "You gonna go first E?"

"Might as well." Ethan shrugged, but before he could speak up, Rory snatched away the keypad.

"I will!" He said like he was doing them all a great favor, giving the mouse a few test swivels. "No game, no matter how scary, can handle the Rorster."

He clicked 'Begin'.

"Well, it _sounds_ scary." Benny commented, watching as a forest appeared- big, handsome trees lit by a flashlight. At first, as Rory fumbled with the controls and began walking, there was only the sound of crunching footsteps- and then a deep bass-like sound started up, booming from the surround sound.

"If this the fastest I can go?" Rory asked a few moments later, when it became evident that the character was very, very slow. "This is _boring_. Dudes, what am I even supposed to be looking for? There's nothing here but trees."

"You're looking for pages." Benny answered. "As to where you find them, I have no idea."

"Hey, there's a big tree." Ethan pointed out, as Rory came across a clearing with a big, dead-looking tree in the middle. "Maybe it's on there."

"Ahh..." Rory squinted and found that he could sprint. "Boo-yah! Are you seeing this? This game dares not to defy vampire-ninja the right to run! Supersonic speed!"

Circling the tree with some difficulty, the blonde came across a single, worn page with black writing.

"Sees all, no eyes." Rory read gazing at the picture of a man in a suit with his eyes crossed out and to his left, Ethan shuddered. As soon as Rory picked up the page, there was a sound of fluttering. Two seconds later or so, the booming bass intensified and sent chills up the trio's spines.

"Where's the dude?" Benny asked, eyebrows furrowing as he leant closer. "That tall guy."

"What tall guy?" Rory asked, sounding a little unnerved, as he swiveled the mouse around, looking this way and that. "The one in the picture? Which way do I go next?"

"Take your pick." Ethan's eyes searched the screen. "I don't think it matters."

"Righty-tighty..." Rory murmured, spinning in a steady circle. "Lefty-thefty. North..South...West is the best..."

"Oh just pick a direction!" Benny scowled. "Or I'll pick for you."

"Fine." Rory headed in a random direction, but off to the left of the characters peripheral vision, there was something white. "Hey, what's-"

Ethan sucked in a sharp breath and Benny gave a sound of surprised fear as a sound of sharp interference cut through the speakers- all the while Rory went stiff and started swiveling the mouse in all directions. Before any of them could even see what the white thing was, Rory had started running in another direction.

"What the flying fiddle?" Rory squeaked, still stiff in fear. He threw the controller at Benny, who fumbled for a second before continuing to run.

"What's going on over there?" Sarah's voice broke through their little fear bubble, and the boys jumped.

"Nothing!" Ethan and Rory said at once, while Benny was starting to slow down.

"Are you kidding me?" Benny asked, apparently still trying to run. "This guy can only run for like ten seconds!"

"Actually, I think the character's a girl." Ethan commented, watching curiously. "Listen to her breathing."

"Definitely a girl." Benny agreed, then muttered, "Definitely runs like a girl."

Luckily for him, Sarah and Erika, caught up in a conversation some odd meters away, didn't hear him.

"Look behind you!"

"Rory, when is that _ever_ a good idea?" Ethan rolled his eyes.

"I want to find the next note!" Rory tried to take the keypad from Benny.

"You found the first one!" Benny argued, and somehow, in their struggle for the controls, the character had gotten turned around and suddenly they came face-to-face with the white entity.

"There he is!"

"Run!"

One working the keys and the other the mouse, the boys managed to turn around and sprint away, if only for a second. Ethan sat still, peeking at the large screen through his fingers with large brown eyes. The damage was done- the static and interference coming back, and suddenly there he was, right in front of them, though he'd been behind them just a second ago- Slenderman.

"Go!" Rory yelled, shoving the keypad and mouse towards Benny.

"Damn it!" Benny's girl character turned and staggered very slowly away. "Eat less doughnuts!"

In one hell of a jumpscare, Slenderman's face appeared right on the screen, along with interference that was now deafening, and there was a flurry of motion as the boys yelled in surprise and almost as one, the spellmaster and the vampire flung themselves backwards and into the bubbling jacuzzi. Ethan, robotic yet shaky and the only one to remain somewhat composed, reached out to snatch the controls before it could fall into the tub with them. Hot water splashed everywhere, making Ethan hiss as it sprayed his chilled skin, and Benny was the first to come up, sputtering and coughing.

The wiry brunet cursed, and a very wet and wide-eyed Rory followed him soon after.

"Don't even!" Benny spit water from his mouth, and repeatedly hit his forehead, grabbing his nose, appearing to be trying to beat the chlorine out of it. "Don't you even-"

"Well, that was fun!" Rory exclaimed, though he seemed to be saying it for the sole reason that he knew it would get under Benny's skin. He then gave a shaky grin. "So, anyone want to try again? No? I'm gonna get marshmallows!"

He got very carefully out and away from the pool before flitting off.

"That was weird." Ethan said delicately, trying his best to look piteous as a Benny climbed out of the jacuzzi pouting.

"What a bust." Benny slouched, and Ethan reached out to flick some dripping hair out of Benny's eyes. The spellmaster smiled and leant forward so that Ethan could give him a kiss on the cheek. "You know what the worst part is? I kind of want to play again."

"Hmm." Ethan hummed. "Not sure about the guy, but the music was a little unnerving."

"The Indie games these days." Benny grinned. "Hey E, you feel like a movie? I brought popcorn. We can settle down and watch the new Avengers."

"We already watched Age of Ultron." Ethan smiled, but got up nonetheless as Benny beckoned him inside the house. "In theaters."

"We can watch that Poltergeist movie you wanted to go see." Benny shrugged, smiling a little deviously. "Or Ouija."

"Age of Ultron it is." Ethan shuddered. "You know, they say the second time you see it is the best. You're lucky I brought theater food."

"You know, I think Caleb has a whole cupboard full of popcorn and popcorn accessories. And candy."

"Does Caleb have Rollos and gumbo gummy bears?"

"Instant corrected. You're the best, E."

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What the hell?

Was this a _tent_? Benny groaned and sat up, thinking for a moment that they must've done something wild last night if he didn't know where he was. God, he was stiff- and how'd they end up laying on the ground anyway? This tent was so small. E was going to freak out...

E?

"Ethan?" Benny asked, because who else would he be in a tent with? He looked over next to him and screamed at the same time Rory yelped and jumped back.

"Dude!" Rory exclaimed, running his head. " _Not cool_. What'd you do this time Benny?"

"Me?" Benny stuttered, angrily rubbing his eyes. "What're you doing in my tent? What am I doing in a tent? What's going on?"

"I don't know, I don't know, and I don't know." Rory replied, seeming to be stiff as well as he was massaging his shoulder and rolling his neck. He seemed irritable as well- very un-Rory like. "The last thing I remember is going through your uncle's stash of candy...and then I woke up here."

"The last thing you remember..." Benny shook his head, trying to clear it. What was the last thing he remembered?

"Age of Ultron." Benny recalled suddenly. They had just been getting to the end of the movie, both Benny, Ethan and the girls while Rory was doing god-knows-what...apparently raiding the candy shelf. Ethan had been falling asleep...

"Ethan." Benny exclaimed suddenly, struggling to get out of the tent. Where was he? They couldn't have gone very far from the house, could they? Even if none of them remembered, obviously they _had_ to have pitched a tent outside the house-

"Benny!" Rory hissed, grabbing at Benny as the brunet climbed out of the tent and cursing when he couldn't grab him.

Benny stared with wide, suddenly fearful eyes at the forest around him...a _forest_ , not the woods in the back of Caleb's house that he's been exploring since he was little. The trees were even different, in fact they looked a little too...perfect.

"Benny!" Rory grasped his arm and Benny out up no fight when he was drug back in the tiny tent. "Wait! You can't just _go out_ there!"

Rory sounded nervous- a little panicked in fact, and Benny hadn't seen that expression on his face since they were little and Rory was afraid of scary Halloween costumes. "Listen! This isn't good. I used to camp with my parents when I was little- what do you hear?"

Benny listened, with a steadily increasing heart rate.

Nothing.

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"Ugh." Ethan sat up slowly from the uncomfortable bed, feeling the painful stiffness all the way up his spine. "God, what does Caleb sleep on, bricks?"

With a sigh, he sat up and reached over to shake Benny awake- they could sleep here, it was too _hard_.

And found himself coming up with empty air and cold sheets.

"Huh?" Ethan murmured, squinting to see through the dark- there was light from somewhere in the hall, but the door was only partially open. Where was Benny?

"Sarah?" Ethan called, thinking that although the vampire had said she'd wanted to sleep, she was probably up somewhere with Erika- and vampires had excellent hearing. And RV was probably up playing _Crash_ or _Knights of Blood_ somewhere by the pool, or even in the living room. "Rory?"

He got up, feeling his way around the bed and opening the door. Before he even got two steps out, he gasped as he was assaulted with a vision- and considering the last one he'd had, he wasn't too excited about this one.

Except his vision didn't come. It was only whiteness, and when he came out of it, he was left feeling cold, especially as the thing directly in front of him was what he'd seen last time.

To his left was a long and ominous hallway- and at the end was a window with no curtains, and nothing but blackness beyond that.

"Oh..." Ethan restrained himself from actually whimpering, but god, he'd never been so creeped out in his life. Especially as he realized...that definitely hadn't been Caleb's bed- the guy was rich, he wouldn't sleep on a bed of rocks. This wasn't even Caleb's _house_. There was trash everywhere- how had he not seen it before? How had he not slipped or fallen over all of it?

"Where the hell am I?" Ethan whispered to himself, terrified as he looked around the room and pressed himself to the wall. Was he in some sort of... _twilightzone_? The thought sent violent shudders up his spine. That seriously creeped him the fuck out, especially considering he'd just had some kind of...not-vision. "What happened?"

He peeked out at the other end of the hallway, where he could see what appeared to be a stairway- and there was something written on the wall in big, black, childish writing.

"Something's not right." Ethan just mouthed the words, barely breathing at all...did his lack of visions mean Benny didn't have his magic either?

"Benny?" The seer asked in barely a whisper, trembling in his sneakers gazed up and down the halls, wishing for all his life that his best friend was somewhere in this...place. This alternate world? Where was he?

Somewhere in the distance, a familiar base-like sound met his ears.

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AN: How was it peeps? I'm just starting out, and just in case I don't upload in time- Happy Halloween!

 _Uploaded: Friday, October 30th, 4:44AM_ xP


	2. Chapter 2

The Eight Pages c2

 **AN:** 5,970+ words :D -almost self satisfied- Sorry for the wait, here's chapter two. Enjoy...(?)

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Sarah woke up slowly, furrowing her eyebrows and vaguely realizing that she didn't know where she fell asleep. It was only when she also recognized the lack of background noise that she opened her eyes all the way and tried to focus.

Then immediately froze. Where was she?

It became evident the more the looked around from where she lay. Just above her head was a door with an older handle and a crank to roll down the window, and in front of her was some kind of hole in the dash where a little compartment used to be. From the lack of a backseat, and the window above the seat she was laying, she could tell it was a truck- and old truck, from the looks of it.

The worst part? It wasn't even the fact that she was lying in a dusty old truck and she could see big, dark towering trees outside the windows- or that she had no idea how she'd gotten there. The door at her feet was _open_.

She sat up, very carefully and suddenly alert, trying not to make any noise and trying not to let her fear consume her.

Where _was_ she? Had something happened?

Being friends with Ethan, Benny and Rory could get weird sometimes, and they had definitely gotten all of them into difficult situations before, but _this_? How could they manage this? Where _was_ she?

Rubbing at her sore neck, she sat up very carefully and pulled her stiff legs up so that she was sitting crouched over with one leg under her and her foot on the floor. Looking into the bed of the truck, she seen that it had raised wooden walls on either side, but the back gate was open, and all she could see was grass and more trees.

Taking in a deep breath, Sarah looked around the front again, and out the other window- she was sure no one was around. Stepping outside the truck, she couldn't help herself- she looked underneath the truck as well, just for good measure, and stood up to look around nervously, pulling her bathrobe tighter around her. She was still wearing her swimming clothes from the hot tub- how crazy was that?

Sarah knew she really shouldn't be afraid- vampires were creatures of the night, and she could see in the dark as well as she could in the day. She could hear anything that came before it seen her, she could run away at blurring speed, and she possessed strength beyond human or animal limits...basically, she could outfight or outrun anything that came her way.

So why did she feel like that didn't apply here? Why couldn't she see anything past the first fifteen feet?

Shivering, she walked as quietly as she could around the front of the old truck and started off in that direction- trying not to think about (yuck) how she might've been lying on old bug corpses or spiders or something. Twenty or so paces later, she got frustrated by the fact that wherever she stepped, no matter how carefully, the ground seemed to crunch and crackle.

"Sarah?"

Sarah jumped and looked around frantically for a moment before her nervous brain could recognize the voice.

"Erika?" She asked the darkness and a moment later, her blonde friend became visible, coming from the direction of the truck, and surprisingly, she as well was still wearing her swim suit and flip flops from the night before.

"Oh thank god!" Erika jogged up to her, pulling the shorter vampire closer in a hug. Fear was evident in her voice and in her big blue eyes. "I thought I was here all alone!"

"Erika?" Sarah asked again, attempting to shake herself out of her shock. "What are you doing here? How'd you find me?"

"I don't know." Relief made Erika's voice shake. "I heard someone walking over here and came to see who it was." She shook her head and took Sarah's hand, leading her somewhere off to their left. "Sarah, don't you know to stay on the trails? Someone could hear you if you walk in the leaves- like I just did!"

"No I didn't know," Sarah began, surprised when she felt solid, hard ground under her feet. "I just woke up a couple minutes ago in that dusty old truck. Erika, what's going on here? How did we _get_ here?"

"I have no idea." Erika replied, still unsteady, and Sarah wasn't at all surprised when the blonde continued to hold her hand- she wasn't sure she was brave enough to let go either. There was this deep booming noise beginning to vibrate the air- it was so _creepy_. "All I know is that I woke up in this creepy...bathroom thing. It was nothing but freaky hallways and disgusting tile-" Erika shuddered. "Sarah, I couldn't _run_. I still can't run."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, confused. She didn't understand any of this- like she was still dizzy from her time asleep.

"I mean, I can't run like a vampire!" Erika whispered viciously, though she seemed mad at herself rather than Sarah. "I tried and fell flat on my face! And I can only run for like seven seconds before my lungs start to hurt and I get tired."

"What- why?" Sarah asked, feeling like Alice in a very, very dark Wonderland. "Erika, why is this happening? This has to have something to do with magic, I can't _see_ either, and I can't hear anything."

"That's because there's nothing to hear." Erika answered. "Nothing but that big scary bass sound, anyway. Up until you, I didn't hear anything else besides myself. And that's not all."

The blonde led them a few steps off the path to a tree- which looked like a big oak, but the bark was so smooth...too smooth to be an oak, almost like poplar or something- but something told Sarah that it wasn't even a _tree_. Like it had just been made that way.

That sent chills up her spine and made her clutch Erika's hand a little tighter.

"Do these trees feel real to you?" Erika looked at her anxiously. "Sarah, I think this IS magic. It has to be. Nothing here feels _real_ except for us."

"That video game." Sarah shook her head, feeling cold. "That stupid online game that the boys were playing by the hot tub."

"Don't say it!" Erika spoke hurriedly, fearfully. "I know what it is! My little cousins made me play it once a couple of years ago. Sarah...I think that's where we are."

The brunet couldn't find it in herself to answer. But she was thinking one thing- if they were here...wouldn't that mean the boys were here too? She didn't know anything about that game other than that it was supposed to be scary. She didn't even know the title, even if she seen memes everywhere.

But...wasn't something supposed to be chasing them?

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Oh _fuck_.

"This isn't good, this isn't good." Ethan whispered in terror to himself, creeping around the first floor of the big house. He hadn't scoped out the upstairs, being too fearful of the black window, but he _had_ checked out most of what was downstairs. Everywhere he went- trashed. The writing on the stairs did little for him except to raise his blood pressure, and was nothing but a bunch of trees and the word 'Help' repeated over and over- which didn't exactly inspire him not to go hide in a closet or something and curl up in a ball.

But someone had to be out there, somewhere. Ethan had no magic of his own except for his second sight, and how else would he have gotten here? Aliens? Doubtful. Random kidnappers? Why would they knock him out and drag him away just to throw him in a filthy house on a lumpy mattress upstairs? How could they have even gotten in the house? Benny was supposed to have set up the alarms- Caleb had an excellent security system...and why didn't he have any recollection of...anything?

No, Ethan had a sinking feeling this wasn't something normal. He had a feeling this wasn't even _real_. Everything was too neat, even the trash on the floor and the papers everywhere looked too _crafted_ to be real. The writing on the wall had been too glossy, too...perfect.

Ethan didn't know. All he knew was that this was freaky as hell and there were two possibilities that he'd narrowed everything down to.

Option one, he'd somehow, probably by magic, been transported to a fake world for...what? That part didn't make sense. Option two- he was dreaming. He was having some kind of a very vivid seer dream or something where he was trapped in his own mind...and that didn't make any sense either. Why would he be trapped in his own consciousness? He'd heard of things like that before, but those people had always had a lesson to learn or something, some kind of problem that they'd had to work through on their own.

He really hoped it was the first one- because if he _had_ been taken here by magic, then there was a good chance the others were here somewhere too.

"Let's find out...how good the creators were." Ethan murmured to himself, telling himself not to be scared, because if this were magic, he, Benny and Sarah had been through this before. He wasn't in any _real_ danger, it just felt that way. And so he set to proving himself right.

His theories were confirmed a few minutes later when he couldn't open the fridge- there was nothing to open, it was a big, fake _fridge_. It was fake! It had to be. And the unmarked can of what he assumed to be soda wouldn't open either. The unopened bottle of wine by the fridge was empty, and he couldn't smash a glass tumbler he'd found on the table, no matter how hard he tried (Ethan tried to be violent with the glass very quietly, so he wouldn't alert anyone else in this fake world as to where he was).

Then he came across the papers. Obviously fake as well, and speaking of someone named Kate who apparently used to or currently was living in this...home. Were fake people real? That is to say, would they be real and inhabiting the world he was in?

He had to get out.

The papers proved to be less than helpful- which was confusing, because if he was able to read them, and they felt like real clues, than wouldn't that meant he was _meant_ to find them? That they would be able to help him somehow? Chewing the inside of his lip nervously, he began making his way through the house quicker, trying to make as little noise as possible still. All he while, he held his hands out along the walls and the furniture, willing some kind of vision to pass through his fingertips and give him a clue as to where he was. Any kind of clue.

All he was met with was brief tingling sensations and occasional white flashes that lasted no longer than a fraction of a second.

He jolted violently and gasped as the sound of a high-pitched scream swept through the house like a strong wind. Pressing himself against the nearest wall and clutching his chest he looked around frantically. It was clear that the scream had come from outside, maybe somewhere in the distance...but whatever had caused that scream, he did _not_ want to meet. Abruptly, his mind was in a whirl of intense fear and frantic intentions to just run wherever he could to get away from the obvious danger. It wasn't fight or flight- it was just run.

Get out.

Get out now.

Scrambling his way to the front door he'd passed earlier, he did a quick pat-down of himself and realized that he couldn't have his phone, because he didn't have any pockets. His shirt was a plain gray tee, and he wore a pair of basketball shorts he'd stolen out of Benny's bag before he fell asleep the night before. Somehow, he'd ended up in a pair of Nike sandals that were completely not made for running of any physical activity of the sort.

Edging along the walls with a stiff spine and jittery limbs, Ethan peeked outside as well as he could through the opaque windows. The porch lights were on- was that weird? But he couldn't see much else, so he grasped the doorknob and prayed to god that it could turn, that he could get out of the house.

It turned. Outside was a small porch, lit by two outdoor lamps on each a side, and beyond that a massive expanse of black. Ethan thought he could see trees beyond what he could see of a sidewalk, but wasn't sure. Not until he stepped out of the house, and tried closing the door behind him, only to discover that it wouldn't close more than halfway. He then stepped back and made his way shakily down the steps and away from the house in which he'd awoken...then he took off both of his sandals and booked it across the manicured lawn. He wasn't sure what made him begin sprinting away, but that hardly mattered. All he knew was that there was electricity under his skin and a quivering deep within him that had nothing to do with the chilly wind.

All he knew was that he had to run. The deep, echoing bass was getting closer, as though just atop the treetops above him.

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"What do you think?" Rory asks hesitantly as they peek their heads out of the tent flap for about the fifth time. So far, there had been nothing out if the ordinary, and nothing at all had moved of made noise save for the campfire a few few away, which constantly flickered.

"Well..." Benny struggled, though he'd been doing nothing but thinking for the last few minutes. Benny had helped and taken the wheel on occasion, but Ethan was usually the one to do the hard thinking and planning. So, without his other half to back him up on his strategies...let's just say he was a little rusty. "I think we definitely need a plan of action before we set out."

"Good thinking!" Rory quipped, nodding enthusiastically, kneeling so that he could look above the top of the tent as well. "What's the plan?"

"If we are where we think we are..." The spellmaster suppressed a shiver. "We should find out right away what works here and what doesn't. I don't know what version of the game we're in, because dude, the graphics here look different than the one we were playing."

" _Are_ there other...you know, versions of the game we were playing?" Rory gave a quizzical look. "How many?"

"I have no idea." Benny shrugged and leant back in the tent. "At this point, we'll just have to assume that anything's possible. Which means..."

"He's here." Rory's voice was just above a whisper, and when he leant back as well, Benny was surprised to see traces of actual fear hiding in his baby blue orbs. The blonde pulled his knees up close to him, and had to scrunch his head down like Benny in order to not disturb the tent.

"Maybe." Benny agreed, but he thought they both knew the answer. He didn't think they would be sent into a game without something to drive them to finish it. And by the looks of it, they would very well have to complete the game or find a way out before they got back home.

Home? Back to Caleb's house? What had gone on in order to put them here?

"We have to be careful..." Benny thought for a moment longer. "Remember how we couldn't run in the game?"

"Oh no." Rory complained, and pouted slightly. "You mean I might not even have my vamp speed to get us through?"

"We might not even have regular human speed." Benny would've been scowling if he weren't so miserable and frightened. "But we have to try, we can't just hide in here forever. The others might be here...and they might not have a tent or anywhere to hide."

"Right." Rory answered unenthusiastically. "So...how do we do this? On three?"

Benny snuck a quick look outside again. "Why wait? It's not like it's going to change anything the longer we sit here. The game will probably begin when we pass the first objective..." Like last time. The scary part, or the scary music, only really began after finding the first page.

And he didn't want to admit it, but with the other three out there, assuming they _were_ out there,

"You think we're supposed to find pages?" Rory whispered loudly after they'd clambered out of the short tent. The two teens stood there by the fire, huddled together and trying to look in several directions at once as their eyes adjusted to the darkness.

"What else would we have to do?" Benny asked, genuinely curious and wondering what else could possibly be the challenge here. If this guy had been scary in 2-D, imagine the stress, not to mention the mind-numbing fear that would come with meeting him face-to-face. But all would be well as long as they didn't look at him...right?

"I have no idea." His big blue eyes glanced around once, seeming to flicker with a familiar yellow light before settling somewhere off to their right. "Let's go that way."

Rory shivered, and Benny was surprised to know that he could _feel_ it- Rory must've really been shaken if he was pressing up this close. Even if it was per usual for the blonde to gather himself embarrassingly close to him or E during horror movie nights, this was also the same kid that had camped out in Ethan's creepy basement for an entire night (with marshmallows and a PSP) just to prove he wasn't a chicken. Even before he'd become a vampire, Rory had never been afraid of the dark.

Until now, it seemed.

Well...yeah. Throw in an alternate video-game reality with too-perfect trees, no background noise, and a faceless pixel demon stalking you from the distance, then, yeah. Benny could see how it might've put him on edge. In fact, he had goosebumps just thinking about it.

So off they headed in that general direction. Walking close together and breathing rather loudly dispute their best efforts, the two quickly realized that it was a pain to simply walk in the grass. They had to walk for three whole minutes in flinch-inducing crackles before they found a path, and that was a _little_ better. Somehow, it still managed to make an obvious grinding sound.

"See any landmarks?" Rory whispered after a while.

"Not like last time." Benny replied equally as quietly. "Do you think these trails actually lead somewhere?"

"There's a house!" Rory whispered suddenly, excitedly, nudging Benny and pointing to a squarish, white cube farther down the trail and almost out of seeing distance. The thought of a whole house in this hellish reality gave Benny a stab of fear in his stomach, which diminished some when he saw how small it was. The thought of being trapped somewhere was just...ugh. Shudders. It just didn't sit well with him.

"I think "shed" would be a more appropriate description." Benny returned as they steadily approached the landmark. "There has to be a page on this thing.."

"Do we really want one?" Rory rose an eyebrow in a rare show of mild intelligence before tugging the spellmaster off to one side of the cube-like building.

"Wait." Benny grimaced and held Rory in place, stepping a bit further away for a moment before instructing Rory to keep watch on the trail while he searched the shed. "Just make sure nothing sneaks up on me while I go around."

Rory blanched. "What?! What if it grabs _me_ while your looking around? Aren't we supposed to _avoid_ looking at him?"

"How else are we supposed to know when to run?" Benny shrugged, but he looked nervous too- he wasn't keen on bus idea of going inside the stupid cube alone in the dark, no matter how small it was. "Maybe he can't appear out of nowhere if we're looking. I'll be back in a sec."

"Benny!" Rory hissed, but flattened himself quickly to the wall of the shed as Benny went around the other side. Gulping, he looked around the corner with focused, anxious eyes, listening hard and as Benny searched the establishment for pages.

On the other side of the ugly thing, Benny was having no luck. There was a glass post-box thing on the outer wall, and even some stupid ill-crafted ads for top-of-the-line dental work (flinch) and bargains on fresh produce. Even more baffling was the fact that the door didn't open.

"Okay." Benny sighed as he came back and poked Rory in the side, causing the blonde to jump and glare back at him. "We're good. No page, but we're good."

"No page?" Rory asked, sounding somewhere between disbelieving, tiredly amused, and angry. "What do you mean, no page?"

"No page on the wall and the door didn't open." Benny answered, and figured they should get moving before...something came upon them. He did a quick look-around and then started off towards the path with Rory. "No use loitering, huh?"

"I guess." Rory huffed, surprised at himself that he found this suddenly so frustrating.

"Calm down." Benny rolled his eyes, and found himself, for about the thousandth time since waking up, desperately wishing that E was there. E would know what to do, know what was going on. Rory was an alright adventure buddy...sort of. But nothing compared to the bliss and clarity that always came when he was touching Ethan, or even talking to him. Holding his hand, kissing him...running his fingers through those chocolate brunet locks, talking geeky with him. His E actually had a silver tongue, for all the awkwardness everyone else seen. He _always_ knew what to say, even when he thought he didn't.

"You have that look again."

"What?" Benny asked, shaking himself out of it. For a moment, he'd actually managed to forget that they were possibly in mortal danger (you know, who knows if they were actually _there_ or not? But it felt pretty damn real). Even just the thought of E had chased his fears away...

And he was filled with an inexplicably warm feeling.

"That look." Rory was smirking. "The look you get when you're thinking about Ethan."

"I have a look?" Benny asked, genuinely surprised, and a little awed that his affection for Ethan could slip through so quickly. Then of course, his second thought was- how many times had he been so obvious?! "I have a _look_? How often do I get it?"

"Try all the time, dude." Rory smiled in a way that said Benny was stupid and he was superior. "You know, I think you even might've had that look all the way back in eighth grade."

"But I didn't even like Ethan in eighth grade." Benny protested. Well...did he?

"You sure about that? It was a common occurrence."

"Oh, can it Count Dorkula." Benny snapped, but he was smiling faintly himself. He supposed it could have been a possibility that he had been crushing on Ethan since he was thirteen, even if he didn't really know he was into guys until he was fifteen of sixteen. It might've been cliche to say, but with E, anything was possible. He might've even been in love with him before he even knew what falling in love felt like.

Wait, what?

"Dude! Look!" Rory exclaimed lowly, pointing off in the distance to another landmark. Their eyes had steadily adjusted until they could see further into the haze than they had been able to in the beginning. Just at the edge of their ability of sight was some kind of construction vehicle, but what was on the back of it was unmistakable, even from where they were standing. "The first page!"

"Or the second page." Benny murmured forgetting his inner ravings, and they both paused on the path for a moment. "Should we grab it?"

"What else are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know.." Benny frowned, and he should've been embarrassed by his own dumb question, but...what about the others? If _Slenderman_ hadn't come for them yet, and IF he hadn't come for the others, did this mean that he would show his not-face after they picked up this page? That was a lot of "if"'s...but when they'd played the game at Caleb's house, they'd only seen him _after_ the first page had been found. What did this mean for them? What would it mean for the others, assuming they were in this horror dimension too? What if they weren't lucky enough to wake up with another person?

There were three of them, that was an odd number. And for some inexplicable reason, Benny felt that the game just wouldn't pair up three people like that. It would've been too kind. So who was the odd one out?

Of course, he meant no ill will towards either of the girls...but he really hoped it was one of them.

"Let's just grab it." Benny shook his head, apprehension gnawing at his insides. "The sooner we start this, the sooner it can be over."

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His chest hurt from his breaths coming too heavily. His legs hurt from running for so long. His head hurt from everything else. What had he done to deserve this?

The only good thing about his time running from nothing was that it had given him some time to think. Not that he hadn't had time at the house, but he would be damned if he were staying there longer than necessary. The first thing he'd considered was that he'd _j_ _ust woken up in a huge house in the middle of nowhere_ , and he didn't recognize anything. He had no idea how he'd gotten there, and nothing seemed _right_. Nothing seemed real except for himself.

None of this could've possibly been a coincidence. It had to have been something he was doing the night before...because if he really _had_ been taken by aliens, or by random kidnappers, then his visions still would have been coming through. After he'd calmed down a bit, and had time to sort his thoughts out, he'd come to the conclusion that this _had_ to have happened magically. There was no second option. He'd been taken and _placed_ here by _something_. A second huge clue was the wilderness beyond the front yard.

The trees, the grass, the sounds, it was too fake. The trees were glossy and crafted, as though someone had shaped them intricately out of clay, and fired them to look like actual trees. The leaves didn't away, even when he'd felt wind, and the grass, although green in some places, crunched like mad when he treaded on them, as though it were dry and frail.

It almost looked...animated. As though the graphics of a video game or cheap animated movie like _Beowulf_ had been brought to life. Which got him thinking...

In the game when they'd originally played, the trees had looked a little like this. So had the sky, like there were too many stars, and the distance glowed like the street lamps of a town had been reflecting off the clouds. But there were no clouds.

Could he be in the _game_? Could he be in the Eight Pages? If he recalled correctly, there hadn't been a house (granted, they'd only played for a couple minutes or so) or any other players in the game, so where had the scream come from? Could it have been the girls? Were the others in this place too?

The second thing he'd considered was his ability to run, and keep running for as long as he wanted. In the game they'd played, it was clear that the character had no ability to run for more than a few seconds. It was stupid, but true, and there was clearly no flashlight. This just got more confusing the more he thought about it.

Did this mean they had to find the pages before they would return home?

Too many questions and very little answers for anything at all...and of course, the biggest question: who, or _what_ had brought him here? If he could just have one vision, it could help him exponentially.

God, where was Benny when he needed him?

It was a few more minutes of aimless wandering and studying the almost-greenery that Ethan came upon...a really huge rock.

"Uh..." Ethan voiced his confusion, and almost without thought out himself between two thick trees and leant against one. He wanted to study it without the fear that something would grab at him from behind...but what the heck? It was by far the first landmark that he'd come across, but what was a huge telephone-pole-sized rock doing in the middle of the forest? It was gray, relatively cylinder-shaped and covered in moss in places, but it definitely stood out. There were smaller boulders surrounding it, and for whatever bone-chilling reason, Ethan felt that he should go there. Like a vision without an actual vision, his gut told him something over there was waiting.

It didn't necessarily make him feel any better. The fact that he would have to go over there and check it out meant that he would have to leave his back exposed. He'd just found a spot that he almost felt comfortable in...but also..the more he stood in one place, the more he felt that something was getting closer. There was tension in the air, and the loud booming like huge waves of solid sound had by no means gone away.

Eventually, he figured that it would just get worse the more he stood there. So, he steeled himself and headed out of his hiding spot as quietly as he could- which wasn't very quiet at all. The closer he got, the more he wanted to shake his head in superiority, because for the first time he realized how fake even the best animation was compared to reality. An actual rock with kick this rock's virtual ass.

And yeah, he probably needed to spend less time with Benny.

Smiling fondly, he studied the boulder, and even spent time running his hands along it to feel the strange texture. Vaguely, he wondered if there was supposed to be some ulterior purpose to the rock that to just simply sit there and take up space. What if something moved, like what if it were an entrance to something underground? Who knows what could happen if this was actually a virtual world?

A few moments longer and he got his answer- a white, almost luminescent note stuck to the side of the boulder.

He supposed there was some kind of upside to this, but all it gave him was a serious case of the chills. It confirmed one thing, whether he was in this place alone or not- he was in Slender, the Eight Pages. Though it seemed it was some kind of warped version...some things weren't right, they strayed too much from the original.

He reached for the page, battling with himself internally, but before he could grasp it, there was a massive, low sound like someone had just popped the world's biggest bubble. There was a wave of energy that washed past his skin in the strangest sensation...something had just happened. Something real, not like the scream he'd heard earlier, which, in retrospect, had sounded generic.

But he didn't have time to think about any of that, upon grabbing the note. The thing just vanished under his fingertips as he pulled it from the rock, and there was that same sound again, the same wave of energy he'd felt only moments before. Now, it was obvious that someone had already found the first note, and Ethan had just found the second one, but Ethan had no time to think about any of this. He was facing left, in the general direction that two distant screams had just sounded from.

Two _male_ screams, teenage screams, if he'd ever heard them, and unfortunately, he recognized them. He knew those voices as well as he knew his own. It set off both panic and intense relief in his chest, so much that he released an audible huff of air before he had the chance to consider that Slenderman might aria lot he following him now. He's found the second page.

But by the sounds of it, he might already be in pursuit of a couple of other...players.

With just a bit of hesitation- because who knew _what_ was real here? Even if it did sound like his friends- he began jogging, and then running in that direction.

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 **AN** : Been a long time? :D I missed this. You know, I've been going through a case of writer's...not exactly block, but everything I've been writing lately has been crap. So...yeah, sorry for any mistakes bros. Speaking of bros, where has BethanForever been? :D Not that I don't love all of my regulars, (MBAVFan66, TiredOfBeingNice, my two trusty reviewers thus far, thank you and I love you guys for it, feedback is half of what I write for) but yeah...are Bethan fics getting old? lol where is everyone?

*BTW, MBAV fan66, I actually didn't know about Atticus Mitchell having an older bro named Caleb :D how weird lol I'm sure I did know at one point, but I must've forgot, because the name was completely involuntary. Weird, because I am a fangirl and have plans to kidn- ehem, give Atty a taste of American culture in the future. ;P Is his brother as cute as he is?

Also...is there anyone actually interested in my other stories? Namely, "Hidden In The Blackness" because I'm having a massive block with that onne and I have such a plot planned for it, and I am SO ashamed of myself...anyway, tell me what you think.

If I don't post by then, have a Merry Christmas! (If you celebrate that.) xo

Posted 12.21.15 :)


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